of which would almost have annihilated her had there been a decent
feeling in her bosom, she would simply shrug her shoulders and walk
away. "Camilla," she had once said, "you will drive that man mad
before you have done." "What is it to you how I drive him?" Camilla
had answered in her fury. Then Arabella had again shrugged her
shoulders and walked away. Between Camilla and her mother, too, there
had come to be an almost internecine quarrel on a collateral point.
Camilla was still carrying on a vast arrangement which she called the
preparation of her trousseau, but which both Mrs. French and Bella
regarded as a spoliation of the domestic nest, for the proud purposes
of one of the younger birds. And this had grown so fearfully that
in two different places Mrs. French had found herself compelled to
request that no further articles might be supplied to Miss Camilla.
The bride elect had rebelled, alleging that as no fortune was to be
provided for her, she had a right to take with her such things as she
could carry away in her trunks and boxes. Money could be had at the
bank, she said; and, after all, what were fifty pounds more or less
on such an occasion as this? And then she went into a calculation to
prove that her mother and sister would be made so much richer by her
absence, and that she was doing so much for them by her marriage,
that nothing could be more mean in them than that they should
hesitate to supply her with such things as she desired to make her
entrance into Mr. Gibson's house respectable. But Mrs. French was
obdurate, and Mr. Gibson was desired to speak to her. Mr. Gibson, in
fear and trembling, told her that she ought to repress her spirit of
extravagance, and Camilla at once foresaw that he would avail himself
of this plea against her should he find it possible at any time to
avail himself of any plea. She became ferocious, and, turning upon
him, told him to mind his own business. Was it not all for him that
she was doing it? "She was not," she said, "disposed to submit to any
control in such matters from him till he had assumed his legal right
to it by standing with her before the altar." It came, however, to
be known all over Exeter that Miss Camilla's expenditure had been
checked, and that, in spite of the joys naturally incidental to a
wedding, things were not going well with the ladies at Heavitree.

At last the blow came. Camilla was aware that on a certain morning
her mother had been to Mr. Gi